Evie is a very good choice for that. Not only did she NOT shred my first story, she gently pointed out that a "heard of horses" was not exactly what I meant to say, and she has a knack for cheerfully pointing out that what I probably meant to say was not what I wrote.

Of course, there may have been a snicker or two along the way....

Logged

From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggity beasties and things that go bump in the night...good Lord deliver us!

There are exceptions, and then there is stretching the limits of credibility. That's the trap I'm trying to avoid.

I hear you. Sometimes when it comes to fictional characters, you have to rein them in even more than what some actual people are capable of in order to make them come across as more believable. For instance, if I were to create an unmarried female character living in the 12th Century who gained fame as a theologian, a visionary, a healer, a talented composer of church music, an author, a spiritual counselor to rich and influential men at the highest rungs of society, and then topped that story off by sending her out on a preaching circuit in her old age, no one would believe that character could exist if I wrote her into a story. But I've got at least one CD and several translated books from this real world lady of that period named Hildegard of Bingen....

I once created a fanfic character that someone told me came off too much as a "Mary Sue." Since I hadn't based the character on myself or given her many of my own traits (which was the definition of "Mary Sue" I was more familiar with previous to that discussion), I wondered why that reader had that impression of her, so I took an "Is your character a Mary Sue?" online test about the character, and sure enough, she scored fairly high. So out of curiosity, I took the test over again, but the second time around I answered all of the questions as myself. Turns out I have a very high likelihood of being a "Mary Sue" also. LOL! But that did make me more conscious of trying not to make a single character stand out too far from the norm in more than one or two areas at most, because what people readily accept as possible in real life is less likely to be accepted in a fictional character for some reason. So when I later created Helena, I was somewhat influenced by a movie I had watched around that same time about the life of Hildegard of Bingen, but I dialed my character back several notches, made her Deryni, and kept the healing talent and the visions, incorporating those gifts into what we already know about Deryni powers to turn her into a fanfic character that would be more readily accepted. If I'd also made her a theologian and a composer, and then had her authoring books and writing letters to kings and archbishops, and especially if I'd sent her on a preaching tour around Gwynedd, I suspect that would have tipped her squarely into the "Sorry, not plausible for a medieval woman, even if she is Deryni!" category.

Evie is a very good choice for that. Not only did she NOT shred my first story, she gently pointed out that a "heard of horses" was not exactly what I meant to say, and she has a knack for cheerfully pointing out that what I probably meant to say was not what I wrote.

Of course, there may have been a snicker or two along the way....

Oh, there was definitely a snicker or two along the way! And Laurna's "Sister Disarray" has grown near and dear to my heart as well. There may even be an action figure of her someday....

I never laughed so giddily and happily as when Evie was pointing out my many errors. I have to admit, Evie has away of looking at one's mistakes as a truly positive learning experience. Not a single English teacher in 16 years of schooling taught me half as much as she did in six months.

As for this conversation, it has inspired a chapter I was fumbling over. It was titled mother and daughter, but I could not make an interesting conversation between them. For weeks, I kept wondering what they would discuss. Last night the answer came from this post. I wrote 1000 words in two hours. I love when that happens. Now, I just have to trim it down. Make it pertinent, and add details about body motion and that stuff. So much fun. I love to rewrite.

Aerlys, don't worry overmuch about your healer's training. Remember you are in a time of the height of Deryni schooling; in time before the fall. It is all very possible that the universities were opening up to women. At least women with high talent or high money. (ie. a wealthy sponsor supporting a talented woman into the university.) So a few exceptions were plausible. After the fall I would say no. But you are writing about before the fall. So yes, do what you need to do. And I am glad Jerusha's hair extensions worked. Don't waist your energy on pulling out your hair. Just write. Write what you feel. Then rewrite it later.

In my class, I learned about the down draft, the up draft and the dental draft. Get it down on the page, fix it up and make it work, and then at the very last clean the teeth and make it all shinny. That is what I love about writing. You can do it in steps.

As for this conversation, it has inspired a chapter I was fumbling over. It was titled mother and daughter, but I could not make an interesting conversation between them.

This thread inspired an interesting conversation between your characters?

*Envisions Laurna's story*

**RIP**RIP***

"What's that strange noise, Mama?"

"Oh, that's just your weird Auntie Lys."

"But it's coming from the attic!"

"I know, dear. She's a little crazy, so we put her up there with the rest of the old bats."

"But what is she doing?"

"Tearing her hair out."

"Why?'

"Oh, well, she's trying to write fanfic and solve exponential equations at the same time. That's how she lost her mind in the first place. Last time she never got past writing 'I am a fish!' four hundred times before she did a funny little dance and fainted..."

Logged

"Loss and possession, death and life are one, There falls no shadow where there shines no sun."

But Mama, truly you too would do a funny little dance and then faint if you felt compelled to write: "I am a fish" 400 times. Was that the day Uncle and Aunte Lys went fishing? Why did uncle tell her to mind link with the local pond creatures. Rather than bring the fish to the surface where he could easily net them, they conversed with her and convinced her she was a fish too and did not want to be eaten. Surely Mama, you can understand the problem is not of her own making. We must help her."

Laurna's character brings Aunte Lys down from the attic and brushes whats left of her aunte's hair.

"Honestly Aunte Lys, you should never try fan fic and solve exponential equations at the same time, or in the same hour, and not without a hot beverage between the two events. One is right brain and the other is left brain. I know us women can use both at the same time, but we don't want the men folk to know that we can do something that they can not. So next time take it easy with those talented Deryni powers of yours."

I just really am plagued by doubts, and fear that once the stories are posted (if ever!) I'll be bombarded by people saying, "Wait a minute, that doesn't work because [insert glaringly obvious error that I somehow missed].

I'm not quit sure, how I ran over this old thread, looking for tidbits of info I am guessing. Never-the-less, I read it thoroughly through and had a good laugh. I do not even remember what Aerlys and I had written at the end. Silly fun.

Aerlys, I know you have been a very occupied women, teacher, healer, wife, and mother, but I would love to hear if your fan fic writing is still somewhere about.

the thought that healers are more likely to be miscarried is depressingly believable, given we know that Healing is exhausting: "Mum needs help" likely being the first and only thought the child has in the womb, unless she is in perfect health throughout the pregnancy. Didn't Evaine have to leave the room of a patient while pregnant with a healer?

Follow on thoughts would be:- healers only survive if mum is getting regular attention from a healer (probably dad). So dad will be on hand to teach a daughter who is a healer.- given girls mature earlier than boys, the girls would probably have to be trained at an earlier age: again, probably taught withing the family. Wasn't there a seven year old using healing abilities in the 3rd camber book? So the girls probably wouldn't be old enough to leave for a formal institution when they needed training.- having a mother as a healer is going to magnify the detection of suffering in others, and so increase the likelihood of dying while trying to heal it. Hearing her Healer child self-destruct in such a noble fashion is going to discourage a female healers from wanting to have children.- Morgan and Duncan are healers because they are half-deryni, not despite it. If they were full bloods, they'd have died in the womb; fortunately they were unable to detect suffering, and so lived long enough to re-discover the ability one they had the power to safely wield it.